QnA Session with Vinu Daniel
By Pragya Chauhan
The Wallmakers led by Architect Vinu Daniel are committed to using mud and waste as chief components for utilitarian and alluring designs. Here is an insightful interview with Vinu Daniel about his design philosophy, thoughts on sustainability and experimentation with materials.
P- Pun:chat
W-Wallmakers
P - How do you seek to position your work and your practice within the larger conversation on design in India?
W - Design in India is facing many challenges presently. Many architects who are coming new into the field are facing difficulties in setting up their office and whatever that white collar practice represents at this point of time. They are not able to fit into it just because it is costly. Thus, many of them are burdened with these financial liabilities instead of having a creative freedom. So, our practice basically aims at how one can be content with one’s own small spaces, or sometimes, even without a space and go on practicing these kinds of concepts.
P - What is the aspect of your work you value the most? What, according to you, are the critical parameters of success in a project?
W - The architecture practice that we follow is a proof that we are completely site oriented. In a way, the site is absolutely our God and at times, the client’s requirements are considered even secondary to what a site would tell us. The site absolutely determines how the project would go and we believe that the site would guide us. That is the most important aspect of what we practice, that "nature is sacred." There is never a completely successful project or a completely failed project. Every project would have a certain percentage of success or failure. However, none of these should bother us in some sense because we always keep learning from our failures and we always get self-belief from success. So no project can ever be labelled as a complete success or a complete failure.
P - Do you think that it is important to put your work in the public domain?
W - Yes, of course I think it is important to put my work in the public domain. Because we reduce the use of modern-day materials i.e. materials which are extracted or excavated from the earth with high embodied energy. We primarily use adaptive and reusable materials, for example waste materials or mud. So, I do want it to happen through public domain, as the large amount of construction percentage happens in public domain and to reduce the sheer amount of energy that is used for our buildings, it would be a great deal.
P - What all materials have been used in this project - in the design of space as well as furniture? What is a challenge that you faced while designing / envisioning this building?
W - Materials used are:
Shuttered Debris Wall - Shuttered Debris Wall or Shobri Wall is a type of wall construction technique where the debris excavated from the site is used in the construction of the wall along with cement and waste/debris. This wall construction technique involves mixing cement, soil and waste materials of various sizes(coarse aggregate) ranging from 10mm -70mm skilfully to give a strong wall (5.2MpA compressive strength). What is waste? Waste can be classified as anything that was produced, used and then discarded from its original function. While the work and construction process results in the production of a lot of scrap, we believe in not being deterred by this demon and instead building with it.
Waste wood - Cut wooden scrap pieces have been joined to make furniture like beds, kitchen cabinets, doors, etc.
Aluminium coin sheet - The perforated sheets of aluminium act as a semi-transparent screen, allowing us to have a clearer view of the exterior.
Cement Board - The interior bridge and the staircase treads are made out of cement fibre board with polish to finish.
Oxide - Floor and selected walls have been finished with grey and white oxides.
Challenges faced:
The site is west-facing, thus it poses a major design constraint. This problem was solved by giving a slanting wall similar to the hand that one keeps to shield their eyes from the harsh west sun. The wall, brutal but a shade from the harsh heat and direct sunlight was to be made from the materials procured from the land itself, this being a prerogative of Wallmakers as we exclusively indulge in sustainable building practices. The walls of the building are constructed with debris. Thus, behind all our projects, the aim invariably is to provide for the necessities of the client in a sustainable and eco-friendly manner which is worked out carefully letting the designs emerge to express architecture at its best.
P - Since we are talking about sustainability, what was the furthest distance for procuring materials for any project? What does sustainability mean to you in the wider context of your other residential projects - the Chirath and Shikhara residence?
W - Sustainability generally means what Laurie Baker got as advice from the Father of our Nation – Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhiji implied that any construction that happens with materials procured within a five mile radius and in modern days we can even say a ten to twenty km radius, (because cities are difficult to procure natural materials) can be called sustainable, and for anything that is procured from out of it, you need to have a special reason for getting that material. One would advise not to go for it though. But, it is sometimes difficult in some cases, for example the cement you purchase is actually coming from far away. So definitely, we cannot follow that line completely but at least, for certain materials and in other facets we can definitely achieve that by trying to remain in that five – mile radius while procuring our materials. This would do us a lot of benefit. Additionally neither Gandhiji nor Laurie Baker would have imagined that a developing country like ours would generate so much waste.. so if they were alive I imagine they would have said to reuse a lot more!
P - How differently have you approached each of these projects with respect to the connection to outdoors, play of light and shadow?
W - Whenever I have a surrounding which remains untouched by humans, e.g. if I am building in some hilly regions or some sea side area, I tend to make sure that the focus is more on the outside. But whenever it happens to be in an urban area where you are literally crowded with other buildings and other commercial spaces, I tend to go inward and give some courtyard and make sure the sky above me is still a piece of space which remains kind of untouched; Or the trees inside the site, etc. So, those are the things that become more of a focus in my designs and I try to give the right play of light and shadow in a building.
P - If you were to choose one building which has always had an impact on you, something you always look back at/ is in your frame of reference - could be a modern or historical structure, which would it be?
W - Loyola Chapel by Laurie Baker
Click here to go back to the project page IHA Residence By Wallmakers.